Head Gasket Thoughts and Questions

[Mikey427]

Hi,
I know this was discussed a million times here, but i was quite surprised to find out that the head gasket on a zxr 400 will be gone in some 30 000 Kilometers. My question is, does that happen only after the first 30 as some sort of a post break in "injury" or does it just happen all the time? I suppose it is the worse option, so it got me thinking how to prevent it. I am having trouble accepting that a gasket would blow just like that. There would have to be some serious knocking or overheating going on, and it is that much more surprising given how generous the cooler is. Unfortunately i could not come up with anything. Anyone here who knows a bit about it? The obvious things to do would be to let the bike warm up properly before reving, ease off towards the end of a hard ride to let it cool down a bit, use high octane fuel, have the bike set up well to ensure the timing is as spot on as possible and have a healthy cooling system. And of course keep an eye on the temp gauge and dont let it overheat. I also heard of some company which made some sort of high tech gaskets which should survive anything. Anyone knows the name?
Thanks for any info or ideas.

[banner001]

mines done 44,000 miles just fine...

if your piston rings are leaking oil that can raise compression above 150psi which can reduce the lifetime of the gasket, but it wont "fail at 30k miles"...if it goes, it goes, hope you dont warp the head and fit a new one.